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Cars: VAG PD TDI Cambelts

28 posts & 23 voices | Started 1 year ago by djglover | Latest reply from bravohotel9er

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VAG Lover

djglover - Member

Whats the word with these these days. I've got two of them:

An '05 Octavia at 47K and a '56 Ibiza at 62K. Now depending on what you read these are both overdue a belt change, but if you read the service book the Skoda says 80K no age limit, the Seat 75K no age limit. But various VAG builtens seem to suggest 4 years and/or 60K miles whichever comes first.

Question is, has anyone had one fail. I'm inclined to ignore the age limit and wait until both cars reach the milage required in the original documentation as I've never heard of a PD cambelt failure. I am loathed to shell out £700 needlessly

Posted 1 year ago #
Zedsdead - Member

They're out of warranty so go to an indipendant specialist and have both done for less than the £700.

There's a local VAG place near me who does these for around 300 each with geniune parts.

Posted 1 year ago #
bigsurfer - Member

I don't know anyone that has had one fail, They have changed the servicing intervals dependent on engine age of car etc. My 51 plate passat is on 60K miles or 4 years so I would be inclined to go with the service book for each of the cars. I know that the newer passats have changed to 80K miles but I don't know if the age limit has been removed.

If it is any use, when I changed mine at 120K miles the belt showed no signs of wear.

I agree it is a lot of money just in case. I do my own so it brings it down to about £100 in parts. As a piece of advice always get the water pump changed at the same time as they tend to last slightly longer than the timing belt and are cheap to replace at the same time as the belt.

Posted 1 year ago #
HoratioHufnagel - Member

I ran for 60k miles and 6 years without changing and it didn't fail. The head gasket started to leak though. By the end, the cambelt was very cracked on the inside and looked in a bad way (not that i looked at it carefully when new)

I think i read something about VAG revising the cambelt limits but i may be wrong.

I think the tensioners/waterpump are just as likel to fail as well aren't they??

Posted 1 year ago #
the-muffin-man - Member

As a slight thread hi-jack (sorry!) - I've got a 1999 TDi Skoda Octavia. The timing belt was last changed in 2006 and its only done 35k since then (70k total). Would you bother getting it changed as I'm loathed to chuck £300+ at a car thats only worth 1k at best.

How often do these belts actually break, or is a lot of it scare-mongering from dealers/garages.

Posted 1 year ago #
molgrips - Member

06 Passat with one of the last PD engines (2.0) and the service interval is 4 years or 80k miles. I'm on 4.5 years and 63k miles and I haven't had it done yet

However Sinclair VW, the main dealer in Cardiff, have an offer of cambelt for £300. Tempted, although I do fancy it myself too.

And yes they do break if they go over the mileage limit and possibly the time limit. Don't worry about spending £300 on a £1k car - they all need it. If you don't, the car will die and you'll need another £1k for a car that may need a cambelt anyway, or have something else wrong with it. I spend £10k on a 3 year old car and it still needs a cambelt.

Part and parcel of running a car. The original cost of the car has little to do with it. Would you baulk at putting £80 of petrol in a £50 banger?

I would quite like to do it myself but I know on some PDs it's a real hassle. I think you have to remove a ton of auxiliary stuff on mine.

Posted 1 year ago #
djglover - Member

I looked at the belts on both cars and they look in great condition. The local VAG specialist I go to said, in his on inimitable jamacian way

"They're not tooo juicy on them man"

I took that to mean not to bother until the book said to

Posted 1 year ago #
mrmichaelwright - Member

had ours done at 80k, 120k and 160k. cost us about £250 for blokey up the road and last time the tensioner was knackered so he replaced it with one of a scrap audi he had out the back, for free

PD130 though, i think the cam belt change intervals were adjusted to reflect different wear rates across the PD engines, you need to change it less frequently on a 90 than on a 130. If you can, corner one of the mechanics at your local rip off dealership and ask them, they're generally willing to help out with info, one at mine even gave me a tube of the 'special' grease for stopping the brakes from squealing

Posted 1 year ago #
Trailseeker - Member

53 plate 130PD Ibiza here, just had it done @66k mile - £247 total including waterpump, belt didn't look to bad but mechanic said he had a taxi Octavia in that broke @ 74k from last belt change.

Posted 1 year ago #
thisisnotaspoon - Member

[smug]my cam's are chain driven in an oil bath[/smug]

Posted 1 year ago #
brassneck - Member

£300 ish from an independant sounds closer, my last VAG cambelt change cost that but it was the 1.8T not a diesel.

Luckily the skip Almera has a chain - though the clutch finally went after 125000 miles.. echoing molgrips above, it's going to happen and a couple of hundred for another years motoring at least seems a good deal to me.

Posted 1 year ago #
molgrips - Member

my cam's are chain driven in an oil bath

So are mine on my other car.

I dunno why all cars aren't like this. I think there is a reason tho.

Posted 1 year ago #
Trekster - Member

thisisnotaspoon - Member
[smug]my cam's are chain driven in an oil bath[/smug]

Probably relies on a hydraulic tensioner which can fail

molgrips - Member

my cam's are chain driven in an oil bath

So are mine on my other car.

I dunno why all cars aren't like this. I think there is a reason tho.

Noise and angles chains were asked to bend round when cars strted to go ohc and chains became quite long + weight

Posted 1 year ago #
Oggles - Member

My dad just had the cambelt changed on his VAG 1.9 TDi at 140K because he "thought it deserved it".
The service book said next change was due at 100K

Posted 1 year ago #
Flaperon - Member

I thought VAG dealers do a flat price cam-belt change for about £280. Mine does, anyway.

Posted 1 year ago #
oxnop - Member

I changed the cambelt on my old 2002 130PD variant golf at 80,000 miles.

The belt looked in good shape & cost around £350 to replace the belt and waterpump.

Posted 1 year ago #
xiphon - Member

I'm at 105k, and it's never been changed. Zero problems with the engine (1.9 TDi - 1999 Seat Cordoba), but it's been serviced every 5K since new...

Doubt I ever will, as the car's only worth 1k tops.

Posted 1 year ago #
molgrips - Member

I'm at 105k, and it's never been changed.

You run the risk of having the engine explode at any moment. It can and does happen quite a lot. Not only will you be stranded, but you'll suddenly lose all power, brakes and power steering at possibly a very dangerous moment.

It happened to my father in law, and lots of people have cambelt horror stories.

You won't have 'a few problems' with it due to neglect. It'll just suddenly go bang. The cost of being towed home could easily outweigh the cost of the cambelt, if you haven't got breakdown cover.

Posted 1 year ago #
HoratioHufnagel - Member

I thought VAG dealers do a flat price cam-belt change for about £280.

Crikey! My local VAG dealer (Woking) charges 120 quid per hour labour. I think a cambelt would come in around 600 quid or so.

Where are these garages with super cheap prices that everyone keeps quoting?
The cheapest i've found is 300 quid.

i don't think a cambelt causes 'problems' as such unless it fails completely, at which point you probably need a new engine or a rebuild.

Posted 1 year ago #
boobs - Member

Not that it helps but I did mine for about £100 (VAG parts) with a waterpump, took 2.5 hrs, not a bad job really.

Posted 1 year ago #
bravohotel9er - Member

Replaced one on my old X Reg Polo tdi a couple of years ago.

Just in time too according to the mechanic, but then they always say that sort of thing.

Posted 1 year ago #
sharkbait - Member

For reference I paid £300 inc belt, pump and coolant and a local (very good) indi. Local VAG dealer wanted closer to £400.

Posted 1 year ago #
hora - Member

As a rule of thumb ALWAYS go for the most sceptical of two conflicting on interference cambelt change.

My Altea TDI according to the Seat service Manager was 20k away. Seats uptodate technical bulletin/online resource said NOW.

Posted 1 year ago #
stumpy01 - Member

I paid £270 for a cambelt change at 60k miles + full service. That was at the local garage i have used for the last 6 years or so.

The interval for the 130 TDi PD engine is every 60k miles (or 5 yrs, I think).

Having seen a mate's Astra engine after the cambelt failed, I wouldn't wanna risk not getting it done.

Posted 1 year ago #
jond - Member

@HoratioHufnagel

- there's a couple of VAG independents nearish me - Wheelbase in Hersham (nr Walton-On-Thames), and there's WVC close to Byfleet/Brooklands (or at least the service centre is). Last time I used WVC and they were fine, but it's a bit of a toss-up which I use next - the prices last time were pretty close. WVC are advertising 'cambelt from 265+ vat' at the mo', tho' what that's on I dunno. Hmm...I've just realised ours might need doing this time round

A bit further from you - there's a guy myself and some colleagues have used for various stuff nr Thorpe Park who does a good job at decent prices - I've had him to do suspension/brake work that the dealers/independents have picked up on/mentioned but still seemed a bit expensive for. The only service I've had done so far (it's the OH's ex company car) was by an independent to make sure anything got picked up since they see just VAG stuff.

http://www.js-mechanical-repairs.co.uk/

http://wvcservicecentre.compucars.net/index.asp
http://www.wheelbase.uk.com/

Posted 1 year ago #
Quirrel - Member

60k or 4 years last time I checked.

I had my belts and pump replaced for around 200 quid. GSF parts and a local garage wanting Tax free weekend beer money for his lads

Posted 1 year ago #
Spongebob - Member

Service interval used to be 60k miles.

The dealer said the new one I had fitted by them would need to be replaced at 45k miles.

So VAG reduced the interval for some reason.

Perhaps they had too many fail before 60k.

Who knows.

Posted 1 year ago #
bravohotel9er - Member

For anyone in the Dorset area looking for a decent independent VW specialist, I can advise you to head to Colehill Garage in err...Colehill, nr.Wimborne.

They worked on my old Polo and Golf, my brother's Polo, my mum's old Polo and current Golf and will probably service my dad's Scirocco once the warranty expires.

Posted 1 year ago #